Stamford Hospital Plan Update

After some speculation, here’s a look at phase 1 or what The Stamford Hospital / Charter Oak Communities tag team intends to do with their land swaps.

Stamford Hospital has bought upwards of 35 properties surrounding their facility in recent years intent on a rather large expansion. Meanwhile, you have Charter Oak Communities, a renamed Stamford Housing Authority, looking to replace the outdated Vidal Court Housing Project next door. Both organizations are trading land to give themselves an optimal footprint. Looks like the hospital takes some of Vidal Court and the replacement housing snakes around the outside from Stillwater past Lione Park to West Broad St.

Stamford Hospital will end up with a rather impressive campus. On the east side of their property they will construct a new building said to house an expanded emergency room. All the surface parking is most likely land banking for future expansion.

Charter Oak gets to continues to work on some impressive projects aimed at replacing barrack like housing projects with mixed income, architecturally designed townhouses. In addition to the work around the hospital, I believe Charter Oak might also take over some hospital property on Palmers Hill Road owned by of Stamford Hospital and build a community similar the Fairfield Court project that’s currently in construction.

All The Rude Boys and Hooligans Know One Thing For Sure…

Tomorrow of course kicks off Stamford’s Alive at Five concert series with Smash Mouth. I know what you are thinking, what will I do afterwards now that the teens have been kicked out, who will I mull around with aimlessly on the streets until all hours of the night?

A message to you Rudie - you are skanking over to Seaside Tavern in the Cove for the Ska/ Reggae Party the Fairfield Happy Hour Club is throwing. Two fine bands – The Void Union & The Stress are booked. Details at the Happy Hour Club.

I'll Go If This Dog Shows Up

According to their site, the Stamford Dog Park officially opens next Tuesday. They are looking for volunteers on June 29th from 1p - 5p to help finish work.
The park has been completely volunteer driven – so if you are interested, check out their site to donate money or time to the effort.

Potential Replacement for Station Garage Steps Forward

I wrote a few weeks ago about the Connecticut DOT’s plan to bid the Stamford Train Station garage out for development as a mixed use project. Admittedly, the plan seems somewhat crazy on the surface, especially if the city is trying to encourage mass transit. The plan though is forward thinking in that Stamford’s downtown and South End will most certainly continue to densify in the near future. In 10 years there may be as many commuters living in a 10-15 walk of the station as there are driving to it today. A plan that weaved the station into a broader urban fabric while also remaining convenient to park and ride commuters is hard to argue.

I suggested the Gateway and Metro Green developments were best situated to make the plan work should they throw their hat in the ring. While each has its own challenges, both locations could offer replacement parking next to the station. While today The Advocate mentioned Metro Green was weighing whether to submit a proposal, Gateway appears to be definitely moving forward with a plan according to this letter to the Board of Reps.

According to the letter, the former factory site would include “open space for the Mill River Park system, an office building, a residential building and convenience retail for commuters” in addition to a new garage with direct access to the train platform replacing the 800 spot garage adjacent to the station. No mention of if they also has plans to take on development of the station garage plot.

The potential for direct platform access from the replacement garage gives them a leg up. Finding a way to connect the location to the mutli-million dollar Urban Transitway investment would most likely need to be addressed. All other proposals are due next month. Should be interesting.

Wholdega

So I checked out the Fairway in Harlem yesterday, mostly as a scam to park for the Dinosaur BBQ across the street. Stamford’s is scheduled to open next year as part of the Harbor Point Yale & Towne development.

I would describe Fairway (at least this location) as “Whole Foods meets bodega”. Anyone else have more experience with Fairway care to share?

Archstone

I was tooling around on the Newman Architect site after posting about Park Square West and found some renderings for the proposed Archstone Building. Outside a tiny pic in the Advocate awhile back I’m not sure these have been disseminated yet. This is another Urban Redevelop Commission project.

The developers are calling the 5 story rental apartment/ retail development a counterbalance to Stamford’s tallest structure, Trump Parc, across the street. It would essentially be built into the new Mill River Park, the footprint is the fenced off plot of land in the park along Washington Blvd. Many of the proposed amenities are open to the public and tie into the park including a “tower lantern” with light integrated walkways and a field house with equipment rentals and season food & beverage.

One of the more unique features is a “street front interactive Wii playspace”. I’m translated this as “we get to watch you play Wii from a window”. Bold move latching yourself to a specific platform in the rapidly evolving console gaming space Archstone, especially knowing how long it takes these developments to finally be realized. Somewhere I’m sure there are some abandoned plans for a condo tower with a “Sega Saturn Lounge” and a “Laser Disc Library”.

Park Square West Gets Slapped on the Ass

The Stamford Advocate is reporting the Urban Redevelopment Commission is setting a deadline for developer Corcoran Jennison to move forward with future phases of Park Square West downtown.

Park Square West was one of the first large scale modern infill projects for Downtown. If your lost - we're talking about the The SBC/ formally Kinkos building.

The Urban Redevelopment Commission works like this. (Someone feel free to correct if I'm off base here) They purchase key plots of land and sell to developers if the propose a plan the city likes.

Now that we are all sitting at the big kids table lets look at the pictures from Newman Architects.

Phase II - in the parking lot next to the majestic. Before anyone looses it on that - there is a brand new parking garage right next door. 16 stories of luxury apartments (hold it together Streets!) and a row of ground retail.





Phase III & IV will bookend Curley's looking out over Columbus Park.

New BYOB Thai in Ridgeway

Little Buddha was announced awhile ago as a new Stamford location from owners the popular Little Thai Kitchen of Darien. Looks like its moving into an abandoned ice cream shop in Ridgeway.



I'm not aware of any other BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze) places in Stamford. Little Buddha might have a nice gimmick carved out to distinguish themselves in a crowded market. I was under the impression restaurants turned their biggest profits on beverages, but every extra incentive is probably increasingly necessary to fill seats in this economy.

BYOB is a big scene in other cities (Philly is a good example). What say you? Do you want to see more BYOB restaurants in Stamford?

New Blog in the Cabbage Patch

Show the new kid Stamford Notes some love. She's been a frequent commenter here and an occasional guest blogger at Stamford Talk. She's already outpacing the old guard in frequency of posts.

Every time we have a new blog join the ranks I'm thankful BlogStamford jumped in early enough to grab the most generic name, requiring the least amount of thought and effort!

Kayaking

If your looking to take advantage of the nice weather, or perhaps just get out of Stamford for the day, Downunder Kayaking in Rowayton is highly recomended.

All skill levels are accomodated, beginners can paddle the inlet and the more adventerous can head out into the sound and explore some small islands. Not much skill is required - I've sent my parents out and they returned in one piece. Cost is pretty reasonable as well.

Directions are here. In my experience a reservation is usally not necessary.

Trail Days This Weekend

From the city website.

Smart Growth Walk – Saturday, June 6 10:00 am to 11:00 am. Downtown South End. This 2-3 mil walk over flat terrain will take participants partially along waterfront, greenbelt, transportation center, and brownfield redevelopment. Meet at Government
Center, 888 Washington Boulevard, Stamford. Please pre-register with Leader Robin Stein, rstein@ci.stamford.ct.us, 203-977-4716.

Trail Maintenance - Saturday, June 6 9:00 am to noon. Mianus River Park.sponsored by Friends of Mianus River Park. Will be armoring wet spots on trails, walking about tow miles on generally level terrain. Bring drinking water and bug repellent; wear work gloves. Meet at the Red Barn on Merriebrook Lane, Stamford; see map at http://tinyurl.com/2bu35w (for those without internet
access, Merriebrook Lane is south of the Merritt Parkway, west of Westover Road in Stamford). Please pre-register with Leader Pete Sofman, psofman@yahoo.com.

Hike- Sunday, June 7, 1:00 am to 2:00 pm. Mianus River Park. Moderately difficult with slight ups and downs, about 5 miles over frequently rocky and uneven trail. Join AMC Hike Leaders for a hike around lesser-known trails in the Mianus River Park and in Treetops (Mianus River State Park). Bring drinking water, lunch And bug repellent. Meet at the Red Barn on Merriebrook Lane,
Stamford; see map at http://tinyurl.com/2bu35w (for those without Internet access, Merriebrook Lane is south of the Merritt Parkway, west of Westover Road in Stamford). Please pre-register withLeader Pete Sofman, psofman@yahoo.com , Co-leader David Roberts.

Mill River Photo Journal

I stumbled across a very detailed photo blog by Sue Sweeney hosted by Stamford Plus on the Mill River.

The pics stretch from 2003 all the way to today and have detailed accounts of any and all action going down along the river from the Army Corp of Engineer restoration work, the RBS building and riverwalk, the razing of Clinton and Division streets, even a missions to infiltrate the nests of man's greatest enemy, the Canadian Goose. Very cool, very detailed and of interest to anyone looking for both the history and latest on these projects.

The Mill River restoration galleries are rather informative, most people are probably unaware how much work as already been done clearing and regrading the lower banks and removing a long forgotten dam at the mouth of the river.

This pic kind of blew my mind. These are oysters currently surviving the filthy river. If they can hang on now, there is definitely hope for a more full environmental restoration as work continues now and down the line. If the social, civic, and recreational benefits of a centralized greenway park aren't enough, Stamford will at least be unique in having a ecologically sound river run through the center of the city.

Animal

The downtown Stamford public art show is being set up today. This year’s theme is animals, not Animal, the hard rock Muppet. WTF Animal, are you serious with this pic?! You better have been all f’ed up on something when you took this. Disco? Christ man, you did session work with the Clash.

Also - in all seriousness, I hope we don't have any kind of ape on display. The potential for inappropriate snapshots will make the all the peeking up Marilyn's skirt from last year look tame.